1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a recording medium, in which images are combined.
2. Related Art
In digital cameras, portable telephones with an image capturing function, and the like, the limit of the image capturing range depends on the hardware specifications provided by the device main body, such as the focal distance of the lens and size of the imaging elements. Accordingly, techniques are conventionally known, such as a panoramic image capturing technique for obtaining a wide-angle image that surpasses hardware specifications.
In order to realize the panoramic image capturing, for example, a user moves the digital camera to rotate in the horizontal direction about the user's body, while maintaining the digital camera substantially fixed in the vertical direction, while keeping the shutter switch depressed. The digital camera then executes image capture processing a plurality of times during this period, and transversely (horizontally) combines data of a plurality of images (hereinafter referred to as “captured images”) obtained as a result of the plurality of times of the image capture processing, thereby generating data of a panoramic image.
As an artifice for the panoramic image capturing, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. H11-282100 discloses a method of generating data of a panoramic image by detecting a characteristic point in a captured image in each of a plurality of times of the image capture processing, and synthesizing the data of two adjacent captured images such that the characteristic points in the two adjacent captured images coincide with each other.